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Re: difference in sounce between <strong> and <em>

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Oct 6, 2011 1:06PM

On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 12:39 PM, Angela French wrote:
> Jared - I wanted to clarify my question.  I meant toask/ imply  is there any different between <strong> or <em> to convey emphasis?

In HTML4 and XHTML, <em> indicates emphasis and <strong> indicates
strong emphasis. By the way, I mixed these up in my previous e-mail -
it should indicate that screen readers might read <strong> louder or
with more inflection than <em>. Even I can't keep them straight.

In HTML5, <em> represents stress emphasis of its contents and <strong>
represents strong importance for its contents. As Jukka notes, the
differences are subtle and rather pedantic. The best way I can explain
it is that <em> conveys a visual designation, distinction, or
emphasis, but does not convey importance. The HTML5 spec has some
examples that may or may not help -
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-em-element

Of note is that in HTML4 there are two levels of emphasis - either
<em> or <strong>. In HTML5, you can nest <em> and/or <strong> to
convey multiple levels of emphasis or importance. While I think this
is <strong>really, <strong>REALLY</strong></strong> odd, you can see
that there might be some applications for it. Perhaps if you nest
enough of them, JAWS might lose its voice from screaming at you?

In all cases, <i> and <b> are not for emphasis or importance, but for
other (yet again convoluted by HTML5) things.

But as has been mentioned, none of this really matters in practice.

Jared